Brian Patrick McGuire (born 2 November 1946, in Honolulu, Hawaii) is an American–Danish professor emeritus of history, lecturer and author.
He is the son of sports journalist and publicity director of the San Francisco 49ers, Dan Francis McGuire (1917–83) and high school teacher Phyllis Evelyn Goemmer (1916–2009), the fourth of nine children.
McGuire obtained a BA in history and Latin from the University of California at Berkeley in 1968; he had the highest grade point average in his graduating class.
He became a Fulbright Scholar at Balliol College, Oxford University, England, where he was supervised by Sir Richard Southern and was granted a D.Phil.
In 1970, he was a tutor in "The Great Books of Western Civilisation" at Saint John's College, Annapolis, Maryland.